Family tradition

Coaches' kin can count on inside track

Departing Dick Bennett's passing of the baton to his son is not at all an unusual move in college hoops

March 01, 2006|By David Haugh, Tribune staff reporter.

As he often does in the quiet of the Oklahoma night, Tulsa 66ers coach Joey Meyer thought of his dad, Ray, after one practice earlier this week.

The college basketball coaching torch being passed recently from father to son at Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Washington State prompted Meyer to reflect on the nearly 30 years he spent playing for, assisting and ultimately succeeding the DePaul legend.

"Of all the emotional things I went through, I really enjoyed being his assistant most," Meyer said Tuesday on the phone. "I had some real good years as a head coach and loved that, don't get me wrong. It's just that some of my most satisfying moments were helping my dad get to the Final Four. Our relationship was probably best at that time. It was a little strained after I took over, a little different."

The dynamic changed slightly for the Meyers in 1984 in a way only sons from similar coaching lineages can relate. Guys like Tony Bennett, introduced by Washington State on Tuesday as the successor to his father Dick at the end of this season. Guys like Pat Knight, the appointed heir to Bob at Texas Tech, and Sean Sutton, who took over for Eddie at Oklahoma State last month.

Moving from assistant coach to head coach might require moving only one seat over on the bench, but Meyer knows the entire view of the world will change forever for those three thirtysomething coaches.

"I guarantee you I'll be watching the box scores a little closer for those games because I know what's going on in their world," said Meyer, in his first season with the NBA Developmental League team. "They are not the easiest moments."

Meyer recalled every interview his first season including a mention of his famous father. Even if reporters had ignored the shadow cast by Coach Ray, his son could not with the elder Meyer writing a weekly column, commenting on a TV show and analyzing DePaul games for the radio.

"You can't ask him to go in a tunnel and forget about living his life, but you might have to say, `Let me get out there and do my thing,'" said Meyer, 231-158 in 13 seasons with seven NCAA appearances from 1984-97. "You want to be your own man."

Walking the line between establishing independence and taking advantage of a resource as valuable as a living legend can be tenuous, Meyer acknowledged.

Ray Meyer maintained an office at DePaul, so a reminder of those lofty expectations was always right down the hallway but so was a potential solution to a problem.

"You have to have enough confidence in yourself to draw upon their expertise," Meyer said.

Breeding for success

Homer Drew tried steering his son away from coaching. When Scott returned home from Butler for Christmas break his senior year, he told his dad, the Valparaiso head basketball coach, that he wanted to forego law school for coaching.

"I said, `Wonderful--after you get your law degree, that'd be great,'" Homer Drew recalled Tuesday. "But he said, `No, now.' So I gave him a spot as a graduate assistant so he would get his master's, and he fell in love with the profession."

Nine years later in 2002, Homer Drew handpicked his son to succeed him as coach but stuck around campus as a special assistant to the president. Homer Drew is to Valparaiso basketball what Mike Ditka is to the Bears, so he could have gone to work in Evansville and still cast a shadow over his son.

"But I purposely stayed away and I think that allowed Scott to put his stamp on the program," Drew said.

He did, leading the Crusaders to an NIT appearance and forging enough of a reputation that Baylor hired him to take over its troubled program in 2003. Homer returned as Valparaiso's coach, proud of the job his oldest son did, and added younger son Bryce to the staff this season.

"The whole key is to let your son be his own personality," Homer Drew said. "There are more positives than negatives in having your sons follow you into coaching."

Moe Iba agrees, even though his coaching career at Nebraska and Texas Christian didn't match up with his famous father, Henry Iba. The highlight of Iba's professional life might have come in 1966 as an assistant on NCAA champion Texas Western, the first all-black starting five team to win a national title as chronicled in the film "Glory Road."

But he isn't complaining.

"There are more pros than cons and my dad definitely helped me get that job," Iba said on the phone from his home in Ft. Worth.

He tried to succeed his father at Oklahoma State but believes his last name might have worked against him in two separate overtures, the last in 1979.

"There's an old country song that says you're always 17 in your hometown, and I grew up there so I think people never looked at me any other way," said Iba, 66, now an NBA advance scout. "Turned out for the best. I don't think any of the three guys hired recently (Knight, Sutton or Bennett) will run into that, but I'm glad I don't have to follow my dad."